1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to clips and fasteners engageable with fabric and textiles. More specifically, the invention relates to a fastening device configured for an easy removable attachment to fabric. The device is formed of a resilient but flexible body having a centrally located aperture and one or more projections extending inwardly toward the aperture center from its edges. Removable engagement is accomplished when the device is flexed, which temporarily exposes projections as they arc away from each other and their respective positions aligned with the plane of the aperture. The body of the device is adapted for a compressive engagement between the thumb and finger(s) of a user. The compression causes arced flexure that deflects the multiple projections to a distanced position. Release of the applied pressure allows the projections to move in an arc back toward a planar position thereby compressing and engaging a section of fabric within the aperture and between the projections.
2. Prior Art
Fasteners for fabrics are widely used throughout the world. Safety pins, clips, buttons, snaps, piercing pins and clasps are a few fabric fasteners that are known in the art. It is additionally known that these and similar devices are employable on many different fabric types and for many reasons.
Garments are a first example wherein conventional textile fabric fasteners are widely used. Most individuals in the modern world have come into contact with a button, snap, or clasp used in garments such as shirts and pants. Other applications of conventional fasteners include jewelry, upholstery, window treatments, and identification tags.
Users will often employ these fasteners without considerable notice since the technology of fabric fasteners has changed little throughout the years and these well known devices are considered the convention for such tasks. However, despite the existence and employment of such devices for many years, there has been little effort to address their inherent disadvantages.
One major problem with many of the fabric fasteners in use, is the high possibility of damaging the fabric and/or the garment during a permanent or temporary engagement of the fastener. Safety pins pose an obvious problem in that they are intended to pierce the fabric they are engaging and may therefore cause permanent damage to tight weave fabrics. Similar problems exist with tie tacks used to secure a necktie to the shirt of the wearer. The continual piercing of the expensive tie fabric will damage the expensive tie. Temporary piercing attachments to fabric, likewise, have the potential to damage the weave or knit of the fabric during use.
Furthermore, with all the piercing style fasteners such as engageable tacks or safety pins, the user risks the pin poking their skin, or the skin of another they are helping, when applying the safety pin to a worn garment or the like. For example, safety pins and tacks and the like are commonly used for engaging name tags or identification tags to a user's shirt, but are communicated in-between the small and generally fragile threads of the weave or knit of the fabric. An accidental tug on the held tag or the fastener causes a stretching of the fabric weave or knit and can easily damage the garment.
Button and snap type fasteners generally require a permanent engagement of the fastener to the fabric, either by sewing in the case of a button, or a riveted or a plied engagement in the case of a snap. As such, the engagement of these fasteners to fabrics is generally done by individuals who are skilled at the technique and have the proper equipment to do so. In the event the fastener is damaged or must be replaced for any reason, it seems that the average person will have great difficulty removing it without also damaging the fabric, and may additionally lack the skill and knowledge necessary to engage the replacement fastener.
There are other inherent disadvantages with conventional fabric fastening devices. Many fastener types, like those described above, require deliberate manipulation of various small parts, by both hands of the user, in order to achieve the desired engagement. Such fasteners are typically sized to be grasped between the user's fingertips on each hand for doing so.
For example, a safety pin requires the user to manipulate the pointed pin in and out of the clasp portion in order to engage or disengage the safety pin as needed. While it can be done with one hand, most people use both hands due to the potential for a stick of the pin, or damage to the fabric. A conventional snap fit fastener generally requires significant compressive force between the thumb and finger of one hand or both, in order to snap the interlocking portions together. Most people employ two hands for such an engagement.
Another example can be seen in a clothing button fastener and button hole engagement. Fastening such a fastener requires the user to maneuver the body of the button through the buttonhole and most people again must use two hands to accomplish the task without great difficulty.
Because of the complicated nature of such fasteners, engagement and disengagement thereof, requires the application of a great deal of finger dexterity and strength to the fastener components for use. Without the ability to provide such with both hands, most such fasteners are rendered useless. Therefore, users with limited dexterity, or limited hand use, due to health or other reasons, are extremely limited in use of these conventional devices.
As a result, prior art has attempted to provide widely varying improvements in the art of fasteners and the like, many of which attempt to provide fastening means that are non-damaging and easy to use.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,757 to Gedney which teaches a fastener having a resilient body that is formed with a plurality of passages, each of which includes a plurality of passages having undulating edges for holding webs of a fabric-like material captive when communicated through the passages. Each grip constitutes a corrugated slit that is formed with an opening at each of its ends. However, Gedney requires the fabric being connected to be engaged through the slit to function.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,708 to Newton teaches a restraint device, having a rigid edge and flexible center. In the flexible center is a flexible gripping strip opening where gathered material is inserted through, after communication, through an adjacent aperture to keep the fabric in the aperture held in place.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,389,304 to Holmes teaches a garment supporter comprising a thin body having a pair of tongue portions extending away from each other at a common engagement to the center. Two openings through which fabric is communicated are formed by bending the body of the clip, adjacent the distal ends of the two opposing tongue portions. In addition to forming two different openings by bending the body of the fastener, the Holmes fastener requires a second hand to feed the fabric through the opening held open by one hand.
Although these widely varying attempts of prior art fasteners provide fastening means are trying to solve the problem of engaging two pieces of fabric, all appear from their illustrations and teach to require one hand to flex the fastener and a second hand to feed fabric thorough one of multiple apertures in the fastener body. As such, there is a continuing unmet need for an improved fabric fastening device that employs easy-to-use and non-damaging engagement, and that is configured for employment using one hand, to provide a fabric fastener engagement for securing garment portions to each other, or for engagement of decorative attachments or name tags and badges, to a fabric garment using one hand and without damage.
Such a device should be relatively simple to use and be easily manipulated and fastened, using one hand, and require minimal manipulation of the fabric providing the mount by the user to secure the device to the intended position on the fabric. Such a device should not require the communication of fabric portions completely through one or multiple apertures in order to operate, so that users with limited dexterity, and just one hand, can easily target the attachment point for the fastener and configure and attach it thereto with that single hand. In addition, such a device should be advantageously cost effective to manufacture.
The forgoing examples of related art and limitations therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive, and they do not imply any limitations on the invention described and claimed herein. Various limitations of the related art will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading and understanding of the specification below and the accompanying drawings.